Ex-CPS employee jailed for accessing sensitive case files

A former Crown Prosecution Service employee who repeatedly accessed three case files involving allegations of serious organised crime without authorisation has been jailed.

Muhammad Iqbal, 27, who previously worked as an administrative officer and paralegal assistant, accessed the three files via the CPS case management system between April 2014 and May 2019.

On multiple occasions after accessing the files, Iqbal was immediately in contact with people connected to the defendants in those cases, which involved serious organised crime.

Iqbal, who was based in Birmingham, was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office in 2019.  A download of his iPhone revealed photographs of case documents and relevant messages.

It also provided evidence of a perverting the course of justice offence in which he provided false details of a driver of his brother’s car to the Speed Enforcement Unit at Portisfields, Bristol.

He was today sentenced to three years and nine months' imprisonment at Southwark Crown Court for misconduct in public office and perverting the course of justice. 

Rosemary Ainslie, head of the Special Crime Division at the CPS, said: “Iqbal’s conduct was simply unacceptable. He repeatedly viewed sensitive documents that he had no authorisation to access and used his position to help a driver escape prosecution for a road traffic offence. 

“He displayed a flagrant disregard to CPS policies around sensitive information and risked damaging public trust and confidence in the CPS.

“The CPS expects all staff to act with integrity in handling data held in its systems and Iqbal fell well below these standards.

“It is only right that he faced criminal prosecution and an appropriate sentence for his actions.”  

DCI Pete Cooke, from the Regional Organised Crime Unit for the West Midlands, which investigated Iqbal, said: "Within just seven weeks of Iqbal starting work at the CPS, he had been accessing the case files of a relative who was being investigated for a serious wounding. He accessed this case an incredible 593 times without any good reason to.

"He accessed files for people who went on to be convicted of involvement in a Birmingham-based organised crime group, importing and supplying kilos of heroin.

"They were handed sentences of between five and 13 years, but Iqbal’s criminal activity had the potential to undermine those prosecutions.

"We will work hard to root out and prosecute corruption wherever it lies within the criminal justice system, so that the public and victims can have the confidence they deserve in the legal system."